Democracy in action

Democracy is messy.  Democracy is frustrating.  Democracy grinds, whirls, hickups and causes fevers and chills.  But, its the most representative government of all times.  And, given enough time – it works.

We just had an example of it this past week.  The selection of a Speaker of the House for the United States House of Representative was a great example of Democracy in action.

With a slim majority in the House, whoever was going to be elected speaker, needed the vote of every member of his/her respective party to gain the speakership.  Republican Kevin McCarthy from California needed 218 votes to become speaker.  He had a handful of votes beyond that total available.  But  a rump group of about 20 Republicans wanted change in the power of the Speaker.    To their way of thinking, the speaker, under the Democrats, had too much power.

That’s where Democracy comes in.  Your vote is important.  To go along with the crowd is the easiest track to take.  But, it also relies on the other person listening to your concerns and under standing them.  We have to remember, that each representative was elected by a constituency group which had their own interests and concerns.  He or she represented those constituents not the party.

So, in a Democracy, you bargain, you negotiate, you explain, again and again, and you compromise to get things done.

That’s what happened this past week.  Using the power of their vote, a conservative group held out for less power for the speaker and more concern for the individual representative.  It’s messy, its frustrating and this time it was played out on national television for everyone who cares about our Democratic form of government to watch in action.

Democracy works.